not just to reveal their racist and corrupt nature but to purposefully sabotage their efforts to terrorize communitiesJune 23, 2011 6:03 PMSubscribe

"Hackers of the world are uniting and taking direct action against our common oppressors - the government, corporations, police, and militaries of the world" says LulzSec (previously) in their latest release, Chinga La Migra. "We are releasing hundreds of private intelligence bulletins, training manuals, personal email correspondence, names, phone numbers, addresses and passwords belonging to Arizona law enforcement. We are targeting AZDPS specifically because we are against SB1070(previously)and the racial profiling anti-immigrant police state that is Arizona."

The other day I was wondering about this. Here you have some dudes who claim to be l33t hax0rs, but instead of targeting world governments, they were taking pot shots at MMO servers. Interesting to see their change of targetposted by GilloD at 6:05 PM on June 23, 2011

Reuters: "We are aware of computer issues," said Steve Harrison, a spokesman for the Arizona Department of Public Safety, "We're looking into it. And of course we're taking additional security safeguards."posted by finite at 6:13 PM on June 23, 2011

I'm really hoping we don't get a flood of LEO family members getting kidnapped/killed by Mexican Mafia.

I'm all for forcing government transparency in the face of bullshit, and I'm probably one of the biggest folks constantly calling out police for abuse and violence, but I'm also sure that casually releasing personal info is probably going to have some ugly consequences for innocent folks who are going to get caught in the crossfire.posted by yeloson at 6:14 PM on June 23, 2011 [3 favorites]

The documents classified as "law enforcement sensitive", "not for public
distribution", and "for official use only" are primarily related to border
patrol and counter-terrorism operations and describe the use of informants to
infiltrate various gangs, cartels, motorcycle clubs, Nazi groups, and protest
movements.

They are going to get some photogenic white kids related to LEOs killed, and the FBI is going to make them target #1 for all time. I suspect they didn't even try to review the data they are dumping to make sure they are targeting specific officers involved in enforcement of racial profiling.posted by BrotherCaine at 6:59 PM on June 23, 2011 [2 favorites]

AZ is basically a fascist state disguised as a retirement community. I'm pretty much okay with this having happened.posted by hippybear at 7:07 PM on June 23, 2011 [4 favorites]

Yeah, but the Mexican Mafia has waaaaaaaay more resources that these kids. The information was available in computers that were accessible from the internet. At least now, the fact that it was not being handled in a responsible manner by AZ is being publicized and the individuals affected can take precautions.posted by These Premises Are Alarmed at 7:10 PM on June 23, 2011 [4 favorites]

If this is raw, unadulterated info on police operations and on informants, a few people may well die. Without having released this information many thousands of people would have lived in fear or been subjected to enforcement of AZDPS authority and pride for far too many years more than they already have.

People are already suffering, there's no magic solution to end it whilst sparing others. Not when the safeguards against crooked cops and authoritarian state governments is so badly broken and corrupted.posted by Slackermagee at 7:21 PM on June 23, 2011 [1 favorite]

Those of you thinking this is just awesome must not be related to AZDPS officers.

I'm taking the more literal approach to the word, "awesome", myself. More epic face-palm, less high-five.posted by Dark Messiah at 7:36 PM on June 23, 2011

And this bears repeating in every thread relating to LulzSec, or "big hacks" in general; if these numpties found this stuff, far scarier -- and evil-aligned -- factions have more than likely already found this stuff.posted by Dark Messiah at 7:37 PM on June 23, 2011 [9 favorites]

If they are seriously revealing informant identities, this may get good people killed. We'll see.

There doesn't appear to be any information identifying CIs, thankfully. Most of the info is old There are, however, names and addresses of the officers' friends and families in the emails dumps.

Ironically, there is also a ton of personal information, including SSNs, of suspects or whoever their vehicles are licensed to. Gaaaah. :(posted by Condroidulations! at 7:40 PM on June 23, 2011

Here's an interesting data point about AZ law enforcement...

They have the auto insurance companies spawn a list of whoever didn't pay their policy and give it to the various law enforcement agencies EVERY DAY... and then as the cops of whatever stripe drive around they type in the license plate numbers of every vehicle they encounter and will pull over anyone whose policy is even 24 hours expired, as the sole offense (no other violation needed).posted by hippybear at 7:44 PM on June 23, 2011 [3 favorites]

All the "informants may die" chat sounds like fascist scaremongering. Yes, there may be operations that'll be shut down temporarily, and become inconvenient more permanently, but so what.

Instead, the most likely consequences are by far that illegal police activities become exposed and some wrongly convicted people gain new appeals. It's that challenge their being "above the law" that our homegrown fascists fear the most.

I hope all the leaking & hacking going on now are cracking open the doorway for far greater transparency, slowly "raising the bar" for being considered really modernly "civilized".posted by jeffburdges at 7:45 PM on June 23, 2011 [5 favorites]

Does anyone else have a paranoid voice in their head that thinks LulzSec could very easily be a false flag operation used to justify clamping down on the "open" internet? Even if they're legitimate, their actions could result in the same thing. Considering the the groups who are already advocating for a more secure and much more regulated internet and how much money they think they stand to make, nothing would surprise me.posted by doctor_negative at 7:46 PM on June 23, 2011 [4 favorites]

I'm really hoping we don't get a flood of LEO family members getting kidnapped/killed by Mexican Mafia.

Seriously? Last I checked mexican organized crime doesn't really fuck with cops this side of the border.posted by p3on at 7:55 PM on June 23, 2011 [1 favorite]

Does anyone else have a paranoid voice in their head that thinks LulzSec could very easily be a false flag operation used to justify clamping down on the "open" internet?

Sure, but so far LulzSec, Manning, Assange, et al have mostly romanticized transgressions against confidential data integrity. There will only be more of this, clamp down or not.posted by Matt Oneiros at 8:17 PM on June 23, 2011

Well yes but on the other hand WOBBWOBWOOBWOBWOBWUBBBBWUBBWUBBWUBBBWWWUBWWOBBWOBBWOWWBWUBWOBBWOBBBBposted by boo_radley at 8:47 PM on June 23, 2011 [9 favorites]

From what I've read, none of the LulzSec hacks are even that sophisticated. If so, they've just brought a very obvious problem to the public's attention in order to shame them into fixing it. The greater danger would be in that hole in security never being patched. Note that the spokesman for DPS says they are "aware of computer issues." So when were they planning on fixing them?posted by Gilbert at 8:57 PM on June 23, 2011 [1 favorite]

Even if they're legitimate, their actions could result in the same thing.

It's been said before, but we are living in truly weird times. Absurd even. At least the world falling apart is going to be an interesting spectacle.posted by youthenrage at 11:31 PM on June 23, 2011 [2 favorites]

I hope all the leaking & hacking going on now are cracking open the doorway for far greater transparency, slowly "raising the bar" for being considered really modernly "civilized".

I would suspect that we're likely to see far, far greater restrictions of freedom, increased surveillance, and attempts to eradicate internet anonymity. Strictly for our protection, of course.posted by dubold at 1:12 AM on June 24, 2011 [1 favorite]

Any Police department which has CI identifiable information on a public facing system should be fucking crucified. If you can't afford to store it on an air-gapped system, you can't afford to store it.posted by fullerine at 1:55 AM on June 24, 2011 [6 favorites]

oh look its an intentionally omitted apostrophe

what do you mean, "terrible affected faux-insouciant shit, literally one can of whippets-related brain damage away from hro-style 'u' textspeak", why would you say that to me

Sometimes I wonder if William Gibson ever wakes up in the morning, reads the news, and just goes: "Guys... it was supposed to be fiction! I didn't say make it real!"posted by Inkoate at 5:46 AM on June 24, 2011 [5 favorites]

I hope this is somehow bad for Joe Arpaio and nobody else.posted by alby at 5:53 AM on June 24, 2011

I'm also sure that casually releasing personal info is probably going to have some ugly consequences for innocent folks who are going to get caught in the crossfire.

Tell it to any legal Mexican immigrant family in Arizona. Or for that matter any village community in Afghanistan or urban neighborhood in Baghdad. Or anyone in jail for marijuana possession.

You can all rest assured that no matter what draconian measures they implement, they will only affect the regular users of the Internet. These hackers will keep their crusade going strong, and that might unfortunately mean using innocent people's Internet access. Think neighboors wifi from the road, not 7 proxies.posted by CautionToTheWind at 6:20 AM on June 24, 2011

At some point, this really does start crossing over into terrorism of sorts. It's easy to cheerlead them when they're doing things you support, but that's a fine line that will likely be crossed sooner or later.

And you can bet your ass it will "ruin it" for the rest of us.posted by rulethirty at 8:08 AM on June 24, 2011

f this is raw, unadulterated info on police operations and on informants, a few people may well die. Without having released this information many thousands of people would have lived in fear or been subjected to enforcement of AZDPS authority and pride for far too many years more than they already have.

Right. The "can't make an omelette without breaking some eggs" philosophy. Especially useful when you're not going to be one of the eggs. "Some of you may die, but that's a chance I'm willing to take is a great moral philosophy for someone who's risking nothing but hemorrhoids from sitting safely on his ass far away from any consequences.posted by happyroach at 9:02 AM on June 24, 2011 [1 favorite]

You can all rest assured that no matter what draconian measures they implement, they will only affect the regular users of the Internet. These hackers will keep their crusade going strong, and that might unfortunately mean using innocent people's Internet access. Think neighboors wifi from the road, not 7 proxies.

So, like, if guns are outlawed only outlaws will have guns, right?posted by spicynuts at 10:00 AM on June 24, 2011

Petulant children posing as revolutionaries have never had it so good. They don't even have to leave the house anymore. "Moooooom! We're out of hot pockets AGAIN! Quit oppressing me!"posted by generalist at 12:19 PM on June 24, 2011

I hope this is somehow bad for Joe Arpaio and nobody else.

Joe Arpaio is Maricopa County Sheriff, and as such is not part of the AZ DPS force.posted by hippybear at 4:17 PM on June 24, 2011

Update from Read Write Web: LulzSec Disbands After Last Hurrah
From articleThey declared on their Twitter account that they had dumped a wad of unreleased materials and a goodbye statement on Pastebin. In a rant that might have been composed by cutting up the diaries of 100 college sophomores, they said:

"Our planned 50 day cruise has expired, and we must now sail into the distance, leaving behind - we hope - inspiration, fear, denial, happiness, approval, disapproval, mockery, embarrassment, thoughtfulness, jealousy, hate, even love."posted by Librarygeek at 12:01 AM on June 28, 2011

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